Church of England urged to target £1bn for legacy of slavery fund

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The Church of England has been urged to target £1bn in funding for a new investment fund to address its involvement in the transatlantic slave trade after an earlier pledge was deemed insufficient.

In a report published on Monday, an independent oversight group chaired by Bishop Rosemarie Mallett said that £100mn already earmarked to address “past wrongs” by the church was “not enough”. 

The recommendation for the church to target £1bn for its new “impact investment fund”, through third-party and additional church funding, was one of a series of recommendations made in the group’s report.

It came after an investigation last year found that the church’s financial arm had received funds linked to enslavement worth more than £1bn in today’s money.

In response to the earlier probe, Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, apologised for the church’s “shameful past” and pledged £100mn from the Church Commissioners’ funds for a range of initiatives, including supporting communities affected by the legacy of enslavement.

Mallett said she hoped the report’s findings would act as “a catalyst to encourage other institutions to investigate their past and make a better future for impacted communities”. The church was contacted for comment.

Monday’s report is the latest step in the church’s work to address concerns raised by its endowment fund’s links with the transatlantic slave trade, specifically via Queen Anne’s Bounty.

Established in 1704 to support poor clergy, the fund was in 1948 transferred to the then newly established Church Commissioners.

In its report, the group called for the church to invest in disadvantaged Black communities via a range of health, educational and social entrepreneurship projects. It also recommended that the church’s financial arm start dispersals this year.

Welby apologised after a 2023 report by forensic accountants at Grant Thornton and historians found the Church Commissioners had invested in the South Sea Company, the government-linked venture that handled much of the slave trade between Africa and the UK’s colonies.

By 1739, when the South Sea Company stopped engaging in slave trading, the bounty held annuities issued by the company valued at £204,278 — equivalent to about £443mn today.

The bounty continued investing in the company’s annuities until they reached a peak in 1777, when they were worth £406,942, or roughly £724mn now.

The accountants also estimated that the church received benefactions worth £359,242 from individuals with “very high or high likelihood” of being linked to the slave trade. They put the bounty’s value at about £482mn in today’s money.

The Church Commissioners managed about £10.3bn at the end of 2022, the most recent year for which data is available.

Mallett said that by accepting the group’s recommendations, the church would show a commitment to a “process of healing, repair and justice” for those impacted by the chattel enslavement.

Welby said the group’s work was “the beginning of a multigenerational response to the appalling evil of transatlantic chattel enslavement. My prayer is that this work will stimulate further visionary and practical co-created action.” 

This article has been amended after an earlier version said the church had rejected calls to set aside £1bn for its “impact investment fund”.